The present application relates to methods for providing surgical guides for placement on an anatomical part, wherein the guide is provided with one or more dedicated push features that can be used to apply force onto the surgical guide.
Conventional orthopedic prostheses and implants, such as knee and hip implant systems, have been in use for many years with considerable success. Moreover, the use of custom designed prostheses and implant components based on patient-specific anatomy has overcome many shortcomings of the older designs. Such patient-specific devices can be developed using commercially available software. Typically such devices are used for orthopedic interventions to the spine, hip, knee and/or radius. Patient-specific devices available on the market include patient-specific knee replacement prostheses, patient-specific femoral and tibia cutting blocks, distal radius drilling, cutting templates, etc. At present, there exists an increasing number of surgical interventions that benefit from the use of these medical image based patient specific surgical devices as described, for instance, in patent publications US 2005/0203528 A1 and EP 1486900 A1.
While patient-specific devices such as guides are now used to accurately place pins, guide bone cuts or insert implants during orthopedic procedures, the correct positioning of these patient-specific devices remains a critical factor with an important impact on the outcome of the procedure.
The actual placement and maintenance of the patient-specific device in the correct position is not always straightforward for the operator, leading to uncertainty for the operator and possible incorrect placement of the patient-specific device and thus deviations from the surgical planning. As the best orthopedic results are achieved when the procedure occurs under the best circumstances, i.e. not only the device being correctly positioned but also the operator being assured about the correct position of the patient-specific device, there is a need in the art for devices which make it possible to ensure correct positioning of the patient-specific device. Also it is desirable that the operator is assured of the fact that the patient-specific device is maintained in the correct position during the procedure.